New Samsung Series 9 Portable Ultrabook

Though not the first ultrabook terbaru portable, the original Macbook Air helped
redefine the ultra light laptop. Limited versatility and a hefty sticker-price
made it a tough sell at first. A few Windows based challengers came like the
Dell Adamo, and the Lenovo X300/301 but were too expensive for wide acceptabce
as well. In recent times, the ultra slim and light laptop has seen a resur gence
thanks to lower prices and better technology.
Today the smaller 11.6" Macbook Air starts at US$999, almost half
the price of the original, putting it within the grasp of average middle-class
worker bees. It offers enough power get through daily rigors, more capability
and flexibility than touchscreen tablets, and a form factor no larger or heavier
than necessary. Its popularity has grown significantly since the original Mac
Air. Samsung hopes to capture a piece of this quickly growing pie with the Series
9 laptops, ultra slim notebook PCs packing much of the same components, but
loaded with Windows 7 and molded in Samsung's own hardware style.
The Series 9 notebooks all share the same basis, with different hardware configurations,
denoted by a suffix attached to the base model number, NP900X3A. It's outrageously
thin, just 15~16 mm, and very light as well, weighing 1.38 kg (just over 3 lbs)
by our measurements. Packing a 13.3" backlit display, our Samsung 9 sample
is a close match to the 13-inch Macbook Air, but aesthetically it's undeniably
a Windows PC, albeit in a sleeker flavor than we're used to.

The NP900X3A.

The top cover, palm rest area, and the chrome lip running around the center
of the machine is composed of duralumin, an aluminum alloy that Samsung claims
is twice as strong at the same weight as old fashioned aluminum. The material
is surprisingly stiff with no give whatsoever and has a fine brush finish. It
is clearly quite rigid, yet is pleasant to touch, having a soft plastic-like
feel. Fingerprints accumulate easily, however, and stand out visibly against
the black background.
To ensure a thin and light body, ultrabook portable notebooks make some compromises
to save space and extend battery life. The Series 9 is no exception, limited
to Intel dual core ULV (ultra low voltage) Sandy Bridge processors which run
well below 2 GHz, and lack a discrete graphics option. There isn't room for
many external connectors, or an optical drive, and the battery isn't user-removable.

Box.

Package, contents.

Modular AC adapter.

The NP900X3A ships in a large, fancy black box with a velvety suede-like material
covering the surface. It contains the laptop itself, an AC adapter, an RJ45
adapter (a standard RJ45 port takes up too much space so it was miniaturized
into a proprietary connector), documentation, a driver/utility disc, and a large
nylon mat of unknown purpose. The power adapter is compact, too: The 40W power
brick is integrated with the cord in a surprisingly slim 7.8 x 4.8 x 2.8 cm
form. it even has a detachable AC plug, presumably with different modules for
various countries.

The resolution isn't the only thing that has improved on the Series 9
screen, either: Samsung claims to have replaced the standard
backlighting system with something it calls SuperBright Technology,
resulting in an image that is up to 50 per cent brighter than rival
laptop displays. For those who frequently use their laptops in
brightly-lit environments, that could be a major selling point.

Performance

In our WorldBench 7 benchmark tests, the Series 9 scores an
impressive 154. Thanks to this very high score and some very long
battery life, it earned a overall performance score of 91 (relative to
other ultraportable laptops). The average overall performance score of
past three ultraportables we've tested is 76, so the Series 9 scores
very well for its category.
Graphics performance on the Series 9 is also good for its category,
but not great overall. In our Dirt 3 graphics tests, the Series 9
managed an acceptable frame rate of 43.9 frames per second, but only at
low quality settings and resolution. Of course, when we upped the
quality settings to high and the resolution to 1366 by 768 pixels, the
Series 9 eked out a barely-playable frame rate of 15.6 fps. This laptop
is no gaming machine, but it's not meant to be, as it has no discrete
graphics card.
The Series 9 also does well when it comes to battery life, which is
surprising, considering it's got a 15-inch screen. We managed to get 7
hours, 36 minutes out of the Series 9. The average battery life of the
past three ultraportables we've tested--all of which have 14-inch or
smaller screens--is 6 hours, 21 minutes.

Design: Chassis, Keyboard, Trackpad

This year's Series 9 is even simpler and more minimalist than last
year's design. It's housed in a solid black aluminum chassis, which has
none of the plastic accents of last year's model. Its cover is a soft
matte-black, with a small silver Samsung logo on the left side. The
interior is also simple: a solid aluminum keyboard deck, four
pinprick-sized blue LEDs (including one on the Wi-Fi toggle function key
and one on the power button), and a small rectangular power button.
The keyboard deck has no additional buttons, though it does have
several function keys for adjusting screen brightness, volume, keyboard
backlight, and so on.
The Series 9 doesn't have a ton of ports, but Samsung gives you a
nice selection with what little space it has. The left side of the
machine has a Sleep-and-Charge USB 2.0 port, as well as a combination
headphone/microphone jack, a mini-HDMI output port, and a small
proprietary port for plugging in an included port-to-ethernet dongle. On
the right side, you get two USB 3.0 ports, a micro-USB port, and a
barely noticeable SD card slot under a little door.
The keyboard and trackpad on the Series 9 are disappointing. The
keyboard has island-style keys that are large and widely spaced, but
very, very shallow. Thanks to this lack of key travel, the keys offer
weak tactile feedback, which makes it difficult to type accurately over
long periods of time.
The touchpad is large and soft, and looks and feels like Apple's
glass touchpad. It has a thin silver outline and no distinguishable
buttons. Unlike the touchpad on last year's model, I didn't find this
touchpad to be too sensitive; rather, I found it to be not sensitive
enough. Even after installing a driver update, the touchpad didn't
always respond when I wanted it to, and multitouch gestures were jerky
and inaccurate.

Screen and Speakers

One of the Series 9's most impressive features is its big, bright,
matte LED-backlit screen. We were impressed with the previous model's
screen, and this model's screen is essentially the same, just with a
higher resolution (1600 by 900 pixels instead of 1366 by 768 pixels). It
is incredibly bright at the highest brightness setting, which means
it's perfect for working on in bright or direct sunlight. It also offers
excellent viewing angles, vivid colors, and an antiglare matte finish.
Audio is another story. Though I don't expect studio quality from
laptop speakers, especially one as thin as the Series 9, the speakers
here are even worse than average. Sound is not just tinny, strung-out,
and bass-less, it's also fuzzy at higher levels. For example, I tried
watching a Saturday Night Live clip and could barely make out
the announcer's words over the audience's applause, because the
different sounds kept running into each other.

The Bottom Line

Initially, Samsung's 15-inch Series 9 looks almost perfect. It's
thinner, but with a bigger screen, than most Ultrabooks; it's attractive
and simple in design; and it performs very well for its category.
Unfortunately, it has some drawbacks--namely its shoddy keyboard and
touchpad, but also its less-than-impressive speakers. Substandard
keyboards and touchpads are more of an issue in ultraportables, since
users are unlikely to want to carry around an external keyboard and
mouse. The Series 9 also lacks some of the higher-end features we're
used to seeing in 15-inch notebooks, such as an optical drive.
The new Series 9 is a tantalizing machine, and it fills the niche of
the 15-inch Ultrabook. But I know Samsung can do a better job on the
keyboard and touchpad. Until they do, you may want to opt for a cheaper
Ultrabook with more accurate input devices, unless you're absolutely
set on a 15-inch screen.
source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/254720/samsung_series_9_review_ultra_thin_but_hard_to_use.html